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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415626">It's always darkest before the dawn</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/samuraiseonghwa/pseuds/samuraiseonghwa'>samuraiseonghwa</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Drop [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>VICTON (Band), X1 (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, But it's not mentioned or really relevant yet, Death, Gen, Minor Character Death, Seungwoo/Wooseok crumbs, mentions of dead bodies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:28:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>999</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/samuraiseonghwa/pseuds/samuraiseonghwa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been six years since The Drop. Seungwoo sits on the porch and thinks about the beginning of it all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Drop [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840825</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Challenge #3 — Sound of Silence</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It's always darkest before the dawn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Just know that this is set in an a/b/o setting and that six years ago anyone who had already presented suddenly and violently died. In this au you present at around 20 and Seungwoo was roughly 19 at the time. The incident is referred to as The Drop.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The house was most peaceful just before the dawn. Seungwoo had taken to getting up early and watching the sun come up and pretending everything was okay in the world when it really wasn’t. It had been six years since all the adult had died and everything had gone to shit but they’d struggled through somehow and now lived in relative peace. Well, as peaceful as a house of eleven boys in various stages of adolescence could be. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been weird at first. Seungwoo had been just of the cusp of maturity when it happened. Anyone that had presented just dropped dead all of a sudden. He’d been working at Starbucks at the time. He’d originally started working there so he’d have money to splash out on takeout and booze while he was attending college, but he actually enjoyed working there most of the time. His team was great, he had nice shift times and he was the baby of the crew so if anyone ever tried to go full Karen on him his co-workers went to into attack mode. Life had been good. Until the second it wasn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one had any idea why or how it happened. Still don’t. From what they gathered in the few months that they still had power, it had been a worldwide thing. Everyone just going about their days as normal then, boom. Seungwoo had been on the register at the time, totalling up an under-caffeinated college student’s order when the other two working the shift with him collapsed at the coffee machines. Everything was a blur to Seungwoo as to what had actually happened at the cafe, all he really remembered was running through the streets afterwards, running towards his dorm. The carnage was something that would be forever burned onto the backs of his eyelids.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was about a month later that he had met Seungyoun for the first time. He’d been around seventeen at the time but he had that false pre-presented alpha swagger that had made him seem older. He’d tried to wrestle with Seungwoo for the last box of dried noodles in the back of a little owned family store. Seungwoo had bested him easily, he had two years and at least third pounds on him, but something in the way Seungyoun had looked like he was going to cry as Woo had him pinned to the floor made Seungwoo feel sorry for him and he’d given the boy the noodles in the end. That was when Seungwoo realised that there were kids out there starving because they were too young to fend for themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The second time he’d met Seungyoun he’d actually managed to talk to the boy and convince him to take him to where he was staying. Youn had brought him to his own house on the edge of the city and Seungwoo had nearly broken down when he walked in the front door. Seungyoun’s parents had been home when The Drop had happened and the poor boy had been living with their bodies for months. Something changed in Seungwoo that day. He decided that he was going to have to look after Seungyoun if the boy was going to survive and be anyway healthy. A whole black had burnt down a few streets away from Seungwoo’s dorm because a ten-year-old had tried to use the stove. He’d heard that not a lot of people had survived and because none of them had any great medical knowledge, anyone they had pulled out of the fire had horrific injuries. Seungwoo couldn’t let that happen to Youn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d left the city later that week. Woo had decided that the less populated areas would be safer for the time being as fire was a major threat. They’d gathered as many dry goods as they could pack into Seungyoun’s parent’s car. Youn had gathered some mementoes from his room and Seungwoo had forced him to pack some clothes. They’d buried his parents in a shallow grave in the back garden and packed up the family cat and left the city. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luckily Woo knew how to drive. He hadn’t actually passed his test but nobody was around to pull him over so he didn’t really care. They’d driven until they found a young boy wandering the road. Seungwoo had almost hit him in the darkness but Youn had seen him at the last second and had screamed making Seungwoo slam on the breaks just centimetres away from hitting the young boy. Both Seungwoo and Seungyoun had gotten out of the car to check on the small child and were shocked by what they saw. He had no shoes and was covered in dirt and bruises and it looked like his arm was broken. He couldn’t have been more than ten. The boy just looked at them with dead eyes and Seungwoo’s heart broke all over again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seungyoun had sat in the back with the boy. He hadn’t spoken a word since they’d picked him up and the two had shared a worried glance. Seungwoo remembered that it had taken almost two years before Dohyon had actually started to speak and that it had taken the arrival of Hangyul for him to actually start to reenjoy life. Seungwoo smiled to himself as he took a sip from his hot tea remembering the first time he’d heard the youngest laugh. Despite the absolute wreck that the world was in, they still found joy in everyday things and in each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was pulled from his reflections when he heard soft footfalls crossing the deck and a sleepy Wooseok appearing, wrapped in their duvet. Seungwoo was normally able to escape their bed without waking the other but obviously, he had failed today. The other’s eyes were still mostly closed and he shuffled over and sat beside Seungwoo cuddling into his side. Instead of saying anything Seungwoo just kissed his head and pulled him closer. Yes, everything was okay in his world.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Back at it again with another random ass fic that might spawn a sequel or four. I already have two planned out oops. There's a lot to unpack for each of the boys but that will be addressed in later fics. </p><p>The title is from Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out</p></blockquote></div></div>
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